DonnaLee Dougherty on a different view of CPE

CPE in the Zen of Knitting

Just as I was beginning to settle into my first CPE Unit, I started a new knitting project. The shawl has a simple but pronounced open work pattern, and the material I bought was a lovely, lace-weight thread; the variegated color blended from cranberry to peach and cream. The material, however, turned out to be slick as ice and equally unforgiving! I learned fast that a dropped yarn over stitch was all but impossible for me to retrieve, so again, and again, and yet again, I ripped out my work and started again. Finally, I chucked the slippery silk stuff aside and bought something that had a little substance to it. This new material helped to catch me up in the pleasure of both my knitting and CPE.

Soon, I discovered uncanny similarities between the two arts. For example, a knitter works with two stitches arranging them in endless combinations of smooth knit stitch rows, or textured purled rows. Only the knitter’s imagination limits the patterns that evolve from two simple stitches. Similarly, CPE Units consist of a variety of Interns who singly, or as members of a CPE group, either stand alone or blend in as the cluster of single interns, knit together by a pattern of didactics, Verbatim discussions, and group members joining with each other or dividing into subgroups.

Most knitters have a toolbox of stuff including a variety of different size knitting needles. The size of the needle is essential because it determines the gauge of knitted stitches, and affects the overall look, feel, finish, and size of the knitted fabric. Often, a knitting pattern changes as it goes along, and the look and feel of the finished fabric varies depending on the knitter’s technique, hand, even her mood as she knits. Often, the ending rows are different than at the beginning rows of the piece. CPE Interns also have a toolbox of techniques that includes prayer, listening, personal experience, and education. Interns meet a variety of different people who require varying approaches and have differing needs. Depending on an Intern’s ambition, expectation, and toolbox, she or he will add new tools to their toolbox and, therefore, be different at the end of their CPE Unit.

When a knitter finishes a pattern, she binds off the fabric from the needles, passing one stitch over the next until only the tail of the knitting yarn supports the integrity of the entire piece. Finally, free of knitting needles, the knitter washes the finished piece; the saturated fiber softens and the stitches relax and open, and now the pattern looks different. Left quiet and undisturbed, the fabric dries into shape, but it is not inflexible; it reshapes itself as it is worn, handled, and stretched. CPE Interns go through a similar reshaping; juggling schedules and “day job” commitments, traveling significant distance, wondering about, what I am doing, and why? What comes next? Left quiet to reflect, at the end of a Unit, CPE Interns discover new patterns of being, reshaped attitudes, and a different understanding of self and others. Hopefully we too, like the finished knitting pattern, will be able support the integrity of what we have accomplished and be open to being changed as we are stretched in our ministry.

Do you have thoughts about spiritual development you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail of any length to info@PlainViews.org.